A Poet’s Nanaimo

If my dear old dad was still alive, I would have given him a call on the weekend to tell him The Northlander is back. As Taras Grescoe wrote in his Saturday Globe and Mail opinion piece: “For the first time in 14 years, a passenger train headed for the eastern shores...

I’ve found that writing, using different forms, can reveal epiphanies as something new gets revealed through a different lens. Just last week I offered a women’s writing circle online called “Dwell in Possibility.” We explored fiction or re-envisioning in poetry as...

A Summer Pop-Up women's writing circle on Zoom: Thursday, June 2610:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. PacificAs writing is a “whole life” practice, helping us in all aspects of our lives, I’ve planned some pop-up women’s writing circles to nourish our writing in community through the...

I call this blog A Poet’s Nanaimo as I live in a city full of poets and poetry events. In May, my partner Sarah Clark and I will have lived in Nanaimo for twenty years. We’ve made a lot of friends during the years and taken part in many literary events including some...

As we approach World Poetry Day on March 21st and Poetry Month in April, I have a few writing circles coming up with a focus on reading and writing poems. Maybe you’d like to join me on Zoom or in person in Nanaimo? (You’ll find info below about a one-day...

The cover of The Sacred Heart Motel by Niki Hoi (Metonymy Press, 2024) is delightful. The drawings of domestic scenes appear to be done in oil pastel so have a softened effect with rounded edges.The poems inside Grace Kwan’s (they/them) debut collection...